We really can't afford the house we want/need will things get better for us or just forget it?

jazzyja

I'm skimmed through this thread so please forgive me if I've not entirely got the Full picture,
I've just been accepted for my first home after saving and paying my debts off....this took YEARS. It took very long days and extra shifts work, it took not seeing my children for days at a time to work, it took no holidays for my children, it took no socialising, it took living quite literally on the breadline. At one point I was even refusing to buy myself deodorant!! 
Trust me I know the feeling of being absolutely desperate to move, I've lived in a run down rented house for the last 10 years, I've sat up nights crying about it. But I worked my !!!!!! off to get it.....you have to work for what you want. You have to be realistic. 

mrsmortgage

@jazzyja thanks for you input! We already have our house that although small and everything we really love. I was crying last week because I didn't want to sell it. It has been a few weeks for my husband and I to conclude that the house is not the be or end all. We'd like to enjoy other things in life that TO US (obviously many people will disagree) are more important than having more space. We've already had a few difficult years. We decided against having a "traditional wedding" to not spend that money. We just want to sit and enjoy our better financial position for some time and relax. 

jazzyja

mrsmortgage said:

@jazzyja thanks for you input! We already have our house that although small and everything we really love. I was crying last week because I didn't want to sell it. It has been a few weeks for my husband and I to conclude that the house is not the be or end all. We'd like to enjoy other things in life that TO US (obviously many people will disagree) are more important than having more space. We've already had a few difficult years. We decided against having a "traditional wedding" to not spend that money. We just want to sit and enjoy our better financial position for some time and relax. 

Looks asif you've answered your own question then. Is there no way you can make your house bigger?? Loft conversion? 

mrsmortgage

jazzyja said

Looks asif you've answered your own question then. Is there no way you can make your house bigger?? Loft conversion? 

No, unfortunately no room for conversions nor extensions. 

AnotherJoe

mrsmortgage said:

We want a very specific type of house in a very specific location. We can afford "bigger" houses, but ultimately they might offer an extra room (that we need) but our girls share and all of the houses we've seen have smaller rooms that what they currently sleep in. So we don't think our quality of life will be massively improved in that way. We're short by £30-£50k. What we don't know is that maybe after this "craze" houses will come low enough that we can afford one? It has become way TOO stressful and with the whole idea that we have to sell before we can even view some houses only adds to the stress. 

Very unlikely because in that scenario your house will fall in value also. Maybe not as much, but the gap will still be similar.

 

mrsmortgage

Yeah I tend to agree @AnotherJoe I don't know what the proportion will be but I think there will always be a gap. 

Davesnave

AnotherJoe said:

mrsmortgage said:

We want a very specific type of house in a very specific location. We can afford "bigger" houses, but ultimately they might offer an extra room (that we need) but our girls share and all of the houses we've seen have smaller rooms that what they currently sleep in. So we don't think our quality of life will be massively improved in that way. We're short by £30-£50k. What we don't know is that maybe after this "craze" houses will come low enough that we can afford one? It has become way TOO stressful and with the whole idea that we have to sell before we can even view some houses only adds to the stress. 

Very unlikely because in that scenario your house will fall in value also. Maybe not as much, but the gap will still be similar.

Markets for various types of property or locations sometimes move relative to the whole. For example, look at the way country property with a bit of space around it has come up in the past 18 months.

However, to take advantage of these shifts, one must be prepared to change the type of property sought, the location, or both. The OP seems to want a larger version of the same thing in much the same location.

"If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got."

mrsmortgage

Yes exactly! I want the same type of house, same location, just one extra room, and we have up to £120k to get that extra room, but it seems those houses simply don't exist. 
The reason too is that the othe properties available don't really improve our quality of life, to get a house that will improve our quality of life would take anything between 3-5 years to save. The timelines really don't add up for the older children, and they wouldn't enjoy that "better quality of life" so what is the point? 

RelievedSheff

mrsmortgage said:

Yes exactly! I want the same type of house, same location, just one extra room, and we have up to £120k to get that extra room, but it seems those houses simply don't exist. 
The reason too is that the othe properties available don't really improve our quality of life, to get a house that will improve our quality of life would take anything between 3-5 years to save. The timelines really don't add up for the older children, and they wouldn't enjoy that "better quality of life" so what is the point? 

Which begs the question. What was the point of this post?

mrsmortgage

RelievedSheff said:

Which begs the question. What was the point of this post?

Good all vent? And maybe somebody had a link to an article that would give me some hope (higher value houses decreasing in price at a faster pace than lower value properties for example). 

Also, because of the craziness of the current market, we have to have sold our house to even view some houses, but if it looks unlikely we'll ever find what we need, we might as well remove ours from the market as it's a waste of time for  everyone involved.